The national anti-terrorism prosecutor's office (Pnat) on Wednesday 4 November opened an investigation for "
terrorist criminal association
" after a clandestine press conference on 28 October in a village in Haute-Corse.
During this clandestine press conference in a village of Castagniccia, a rural and steep area of Haute-Corse, a leaflet signed by FLNC 76 was handed over to the Corsica Net Infos information site.
According to this site, "
two men dressed in black, hooded appeared in front of the journalist
", on behalf of "
FLNC 76
", and one of them announced that this group "will
no longer be satisfied with mere appearances
" From the same source, one of the two men carried "
a heavy weapon
" and a "
pistol
" and notably assured: "
There are ten people today, they are hidden and observe you
".
In this leaflet, consulted by AFP, the group denounces "
the erratic measures taken by the French state in this harsh pandemic
".
According to him, these measures, including the new confinement, had the sole effect of "
bringing the Corsican people to their knees
".
The group also asks "
the European Court of Human Rights to put an end to the detention of Jean-François Santini, imprisoned without proof
".
Four decades of action
This nationalist activist and writer born in 1944 had started a hunger strike, since arrested, to protest against this detention, which had led the presidents of the Executive Council and of the Corsican Assembly, Gilles Simeoni and Jean-Guy Talamoni, to challenge the government.
On October 11, Jean-François Santini was indicted like eight other people, for "
terrorist criminal association
", "
destruction or degradation in a meeting
" and for "
transport and acquisition of category A or B weapons.
», All in connection with a terrorist company, in an investigation into shots aimed at a gendarmerie in the Montesoro district of Bastia (Haute-Corse), last July.
In its leaflet, the “
FLNC 76
” added: “
We also want to raise a point about the potential radical Islamic fascists who live in Corsica that no terrorist attack on the territory of Corsica will be tolerated!
"
After four decades marked by more than 4,500 attacks claimed, the main branch of the FLNC had taken the "
historic decision
" to lay down its arms in 2014, but other branches of the Corsican organization have since claimed violent actions.